Wild medical discoveries that change the course of history — namely penicillin — can happen. “But those are rare,” emphasized DePaul University’s Klugman. “Science does not work that way. It works that way in Star Trek. But that’s not the real world. Science is slow. Science is methodical.”
And with all the well-publicized successes in the medical world — like artificial hearts and surgeries to separate the skulls of conjoined twins — society is still rife with anguish well into the 21st century. “Fuck Cancer” shirts have become popular for a reason.
“We cling to narratives of triumph, medical heroism, and restitution,” said Lee, of the University of California, Irvine. “And there is reason to celebrate. But there is suffering every single day. To not acknowledge that is to not paint the whole picture.”
Humanity has not nearly conquered infectious disease. Though “…the belief that infectious diseases had been successfully overcome was pervasive in biomedical circles — including among a Nobel Laureate, medical Dean, and other thought leaders — from as early as 1948, and extending all the way into the mid-1980s,” medical experts concluded in 2013.
That belief has been squashed. Tuberculosis, which Gunderman calls “the scourge of mankind,” has become resistant to some of our drugs. The respiratory disease kills 1.5 million people each year. HIV, which still has no vaccine, has killed around 32 million people, and infected 1.7 million people globally in 2019. In 2018, there were 228 million cases of malaria.
“Anyone who pronounced the death of infectious disease is certainly way off base,” said Gunderman.
A new one is here. And it’s not unprecedented. “We need to recognize that humans are periodically thrust into situations like this,” Gunderman said. And like past scourges, there probably won’t be any miracles, nor quick solutions. Perhaps, however, this pandemic will stoke robust federal efforts to contain the next insidious virus before it races through the population.
“To talk about a post-pandemic world is naive,” said Gunderman.
